Detroit Driver Brutally Beaten by Mob Returns Home

Steve Utash, center, was attacked by a mob after Utash hit a boy while driving his truck on April 2, 2014.COURTESY UTASH FAMILY

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May 19, 2014 / 12:49 AM GMT

Six weeks after a Detroit driver accidentally struck a young boy with his pickup truck — and was then viciously beaten by a mob — his family posted on their Facebook page Saturday a simple message: “Steven Utash is home.”

Utash, 54, hit a 10-year-old boy on April 2 after stepping in front of Utash’s truck. When Utash tried to offer assistance, a group of men rushed him, committing what Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan described as a “senseless vigilante style attack."

Authorities determined that the accident would have been difficult to avoid and the boy suffered a broken leg, and was released from the hospital shortly after.

Utash, who was injured so severely that doctors had to induce a coma, did not have health insurance, and his family has raised nearly $200,000 to help cover medical expenses.

“Sometimes he can look at me and remember who I am and other times he can't,” Utash's daughter, Mandi Emerick, wrote on the fund’s website last month.

Four men who range from 17 to 30 years old have been charged with assault with intent to murder and assault with intent to do great bodily harm. A fifth person was charged as a juvenile with assault and ethnic intimidation.

Steve Utash, center, was attacked by a mob after Utash hit a boy while driving his truck on April 2, 2014.COURTESY UTASH FAMILY